Applications for the Study Programme

Background

A review of some of the most disruptive inventions in history shows that General Electricwas founded by Thomas Edison, who also invented the electric light bulb. Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone and founded the Bell Telephone Company (now AT&T), while Marconi, the inventor of radio, founded Wireless Telegraph & Signal in the UK. These are examples of inventors whose ideas gave rise to highly successful companies. They also show that success translated into significantly larger companies, more “good jobs” and increased value creation. There is a natural association between start-ups and new products or processes, some of which might expand and contribute to a dynamic and healthy business demography.

The Foundation invites proposals analysing business demography in Portugal, particularly the constraints on business growth and their impact on productivity.

Scope

• Explain why Portugal has so many micro-enterprises. Identify (and measure) the causes of the “growing pains” that Portuguese companies experience.
• Analyse how Portuguese companies’ outgoings have evolved over the past two decades, then compare these figures with those of countries where average company size has increased and micro-enterprises have converged towards highly efficient models.
• Study the impact of simplifying rules and judicial processes for eliminating inefficient companies.
• Establish how young entrepreneurs’ dynamism can translate into good management and increased company size without compromising innovation.
• Identify ways of redesigning policies and/or regulations that hinder or promote healthy growth among micro-enterprises.
• Assess the productivity and employment costs associated with the size of Portuguese companies. Construct counterfactuals that factor in professional management, the impact of AI and the potential to enter new markets.
• Understand how the small size of businesses constrains the creation of “good jobs” in the most labour-intensive sectors of the Portuguese economy.

Expected contribution

Funded projects should combine innovative theoretical and empirical research with concrete public policy recommendations to increase company size in Portugal.

Online Information Session with Isabel Horta Correia

18 November: 16:00–17:30

To access the session, follow this link.

If you have any questions, please contact us at estudos@ffms.pt

Background

One of the main obstacles to Portugal’s future prosperity is its demographic makeup. The country’s fertility rate has remained below 1.5 children per woman for several decades, raising serious concerns about its long-term demographic sustainability. Simultaneously, rising life expectancy is increasing the proportion of the elderly population and accelerating population ageing.

These trends have significant economic implications. As fewer people enter the labour market, labour supply will decline, exacerbating labour shortages and constraining the potential for economic growth. At the same time, an ageing population will increase demand for health and long-term care services and place further pressure on the pension system, posing new challenges to the financial sustainability of the social security system.

Improving Portugal’s economic prospects will therefore require implementing policies that strengthen the demographic foundations of growth. In the short and medium term, this means harnessing immigration’s potential to alleviate labour shortages and support economic activity. Long-term solutions, meanwhile, will involve designing effective policies that encourage people to have children and contribute to higher fertility rates, thereby reinforcing the country’s demographic sustainability and productive capacity.

The Foundation invites empirically grounded proposals to identify policies for bolstering Portugal’s demographic sustainability, encouraging fertility, maximising immigration’s economic potential and ensuring that public services and social infrastructure adapt to changing demographic patterns.

Scope

Proposals should address some, although not necessarily all, of the following issues, while approaching Portugal from a comparative perspective:

• Assess the extent to which current family, labour market, housing and social protection policies shape fertility decisions and reproductive behaviour in Portugal, identifying the institutional and economic barriers to family formation and childbearing.
• Analyse the international scientific evidence on successful policies for promoting fertility and assess their relevance and applicability to the Portuguese context.
• Examine the potential contribution of projected migration flows for meeting labour needs over the coming decades, particularly in sectors facing persistent labour shortages, such as health, education and the care sector.   
• Evaluate the implications of current and projected migration flows for demand for public services and infrastructure, particularly in education, health, housing and social services.

Expected contribution

Funded projects should combine innovative empirical research with concrete public policy recommendations aimed at promoting Portugal’s long-term demographic sustainability.

Online Information Session with Amílcar Moreira

November 25, 4:00 PM–5:30 PM

To access the session, follow this link.

If you have any questions, please contact us at estudos@ffms.pt

There are no closed calls. The open calls are the first calls under the 2027–2029 Study Programme.

The Foundation adopts a management model based on the autonomy and accountability of the teams. The research team is primarily responsible for managing the awarded budget. Entrusting this responsibility to the researchers affords them autonomy in deciding how to distribute funds, thereby reducing the project’s administrative burden and allowing researchers to focus their resources and time on carrying out the research and producing reliable findings.

Each project is supervised by a project manager and a scientific consultant. They monitor the progress of the work and support the team in addressing any scientific or operational difficulties.

This supervision includes regular meetings focused on progress made, next steps and any challenges, which the Foundation will help to solve, wherever possible. The Foundation’s team also supervises content intended for publication, helping to ensure its scientific rigour, clarity of presentation and accessibility to non-specialist audiences.

Similarly, the Foundation regularly organises workshops with external experts, inviting them to analyse and give feedback on interim versions of the studies. These sessions help teams to design high-quality research proposals. The Foundation covers all costs associated with these workshops, including the experts’ fees.

In addition to the budget allocated to the team, the Foundation directly covers various additional costs associated with the study. This includes linguistic editing, translation, typesetting and graphic design for a Foundation book publishing the study’s findings, as well as interim workshops, scientific reviews and dissemination activities. Upon request by the research team, the Foundation may also support the publication of results with international scientific publishers under an open-access scheme, alongside a Portuguese-language version to be published by the Foundation.

Each study receives a communication and dissemination strategy tailored to its characteristics, findings and target audiences. The Foundation is responsible for designing, implementing and covering all other costs of this strategy, seeking to bring the knowledge produced to public decision-makers, the scientific community, the media and society at large.

Dissemination initiatives may include contacts with journalists, meetings with decision-makers and other relevant stakeholders, public events, participation in podcasts and dissemination through the Foundation’s own channels. Researchers are expected to play an active role in disseminating and communicating their findings to the public, and may be asked to take part in these initiatives.

The Foundation also monitors media coverage, audience figures and the digital reach of publications, sharing this data with the research teams to assess the reach and societal impact of their studies.

The application process for Foundation Studies involves two rounds of calls each year. Each round consists of two calls on different themes, related to structural issues within two of the Study Programme’s key areas. Calls are expected to be announced two to three months before the application deadline. Teams should reflect on the focus of each call and submit their application while the relevant call is open by preparing and submitting a Concept Note (see Documents).

On average, Foundation studies take around two years to prepare. However, this is only indicative, and the time taken to prepare each individual study may vary if a different duration serves the purpose of the project and is consistent with the Foundation’s priorities.

The 2027–2029 Study Programme accommodates large-scale studies and is not intended to fund proposals for standalone policy papers. However, a study may take the form of a series of policy papers which address the question set out in the relevant call.

Generally speaking, the Foundation promotes studies covering a wide range of areas within the social sciences, in keeping with its statutory mission of studying and promoting knowledge of Portuguese society. Nevertheless, the Foundation commissions projects in accordance with the thematic priorities defined for each three-year period in the corresponding Study Programme. For the 2027–2029 three-year period, the thematic priorities centre on four key areas: democratic vitality, productivity and growth, social policy and prosperity, and housing and mobility.

Fundação Francisco Manuel dos Santos was established to promote knowledge about Portuguese society. Nevertheless, it also commissions studies that enable comparisons with countries similar to Portugal, namely European Union Member States, OECD member countries and countries in Southern Europe, whenever this contributes to a better understanding of Portuguese society. You can consult the thematic lines of research for the current three-year period (2027–2029) here.

The Foundation’s Social Bodies assess applications as a whole and decide, on a case-by-case basis, whether the budget requested is consistent with the corresponding projects’ objectives. Efficient use of resources is a factor when assessing applications, and the Foundation may request a revision of the budget or individual budget items if it considers them inappropriate for the proposed project.

No. The Foundation’s management model is based on the autonomy and responsibility of research teams. Responsibility for managing the awarded budget lies largely with the research team, which has autonomy over its distribution, thereby reducing the project’s administrative burden.

No. FFMS covers the costs of language editing, translation, typesetting and graphic design for publishing studies in book form, as well as interim workshops, scientific reviews of the studies and dissemination activities. Each study benefits from a communication and dissemination strategy tailored to its characteristics, findings and target audiences. The Foundation’s teams define this strategy once the final study has been approved.

Yes. If the contracted researchers are affiliated with universities or research centres, FFMS may pay overheads of up to 20% of the total project value.

Yes, the Foundation may co-fund studies in partnership with other organisations. Such situations are evaluated on a case-by-case basis and must be coordinated with the Foundation in advance.

There is no maximum limit on the number of applications per researcher, whether to coordinate or to be part of research teams. Similarly, there is no maximum limit on the number of applications per institution.

Yes. The Foundation also supports projects involving international members, including Portuguese nationals living abroad and citizens of other nationalities. The Foundation ensures that project findings are disseminated in Portuguese, in fulfilment of its statutory mission, even if the authors do not speak Portuguese. Nevertheless, it is important to emphasise that all Studies must focus on Portuguese society, even if they include data on other countries or communities.

Yes. The Foundation accepts applications from individual researchers. However, studies awarded to individual researchers are rare, as those commissioned by the Foundation generally involve scientific teams, sometimes international ones, of a certain size

Normally, researchers contracted by FFMS are academics with relevant publications in a particular scientific field, so it is unlikely that someone who has not yet completed a PhD would coordinate a Foundation Study, although nothing prevents this. However, coordinators of Foundation Studies generally contract research fellows and other less experienced researchers to collaborate on their projects.

In addition to assessing applications, the FFMS scientific team is responsible for monitoring all approved projects. To this end, a project manager and a scientific consultant with expertise in the relevant field are assigned to each contracted research team. The scientific team also assists with event production and the editing of dissemination materials for the Studies, including books, infographics and videos.

Each study benefits from a communication and dissemination strategy tailored to its characteristics, findings and target audiences. The Foundation is responsible for designing and implementing the strategy and for covering its costs, with the aim of bringing the knowledge produced to public decision-makers, the scientific community, the media and society as a whole. Researchers are expected to participate actively in disseminating and publicly communicating their findings and may be invited to take part in interviews, debates and other initiatives.

No. The Foundation is statutorily prohibited from funding master’s or doctoral programmes, scholarships, fellowships or sabbaticals for the purpose of scientific research.

No. The scientific team only deals with publications resulting from the scientific studies promoted by the Foundation. Any other proposals should be sent to the general email address (ffms@ffms.pt).